Sweet Pea...

Is one of the names I still call my daughter but it's also the birth month flower for April. The Sweet Pea flower is a climbing garden plant having fragrant pastel-colored flowers and can mean "Blissful Pleasure or Goodbye". So when my daughter sent me the photo of her with these climbing flowers (don't think these are Sweet Peas though) I had a great idea for my layout.

In keeping with one of the themes in our April/May issue of the SOC magazine, I decided to try my hand at making some Sweet Pea flowers from fabric. So I went online and found a great tutorial for making them using crate or tissue paper but I'm using left over fabric from the mini album I made. You can check out the mini album starting on page 42. To make the fabric easier to work with and to form the flower petals I added some Therm O Web Heat n Bond iron on adhesive to the fabric squares. This also helps the fabric from fraying. I used twist ties to hold the petals and wrapped them with fabric for my stems. It was easy and fun trying out a new technique and a great way to use up scrap fabric.

So if Spring hasn't quite sprung in your area and you're not smelling the sweet fragrances of Sweet Peas...try making a bouquet of your own using fabric or paper. They will still be beautiful!

Sweet Pea by Tena Ellison. Supplies Patterned Paper: Pink Paislee; Title Letters: American Craft; Vine Flowers: Prima; Handmade Fabric Flowers: Tena Ellison; Fabric: Basic Grey; Die Cut Fence: Cricut; Cartridge: Heritage.

**Note: I used the Sweet Pea tutorial found at www.castleintheair.biz to make the flowers.